In Mecca for four days, Imam of the main mosque of Muslims Sheikh Bandar Balila was detained. The report was released on Saturday 15 September. This is reported by Al-Jazeera with reference to the page “Prisoners of Conscience” (معتقلي الرأي).

Earlier it was reported about the detention of another imam of the Mecca Protected Mosque Sheikh Salih Al Talib.

In total, since September 2017, according to the page “Prisoners of Conscience”, in Saudi Arabia, 2,613 religious and public figures were detained.

Before the arrest of Sheikh Bandar Balila, there was an arrest of Shaikh Salih Al Talib as well. Authorities of Saudi Arabia had arrested the Imam-Khatib of the Mecca’s Shrine of Sheikh Salih Al Talib.

This had also been reported by Al-Jazeera with reference to the group “Prisoners of Conscience” in Twitter. The reason for the arrest was the sheikh’s sermon, where he spoke about obscene actions (munkarat) and called not to follow those who commit such acts.

This is reported in the group, the last message of Sheikh Al Talib in Twitter was made on Sunday, where he addressed the pilgrims on the occasion of the day of at-Tarviyah (staying in the Mina valley) and appended part of his Friday sermon (khutba).

Recall that the mass arrests of prominent theologians and preachers began in the kingdom in September last year and continue to this day.